132 children held as riot police clear Calais ‘Jungle’

Desperate: French police restrain a migrant in the shanty town in Calais

Illegal migrants and Left-wing ­protesters fought police today as armed officers began clearing the "Jungle" shanty town in Calais.

As dawn broke, dozens of vans accompanied by bulldozers entered the wooded wasteground a few ­hundred yards from the ferry port.

About 500 French police had massed for the operation — at least two for each migrant who had stayed on in the blue tarpaulin tents and rickety shacks.

Many more had vanished overnight, moving to other parts of Calais to ­continue to plan their journeys to ­Britain in the back of lorries or trains.

A total of 278 people – 132 of them children – were detained, said officials. Most were young men claiming to be from Afghanistan.

Cries of "We will fight" rang out as police moved into the camp. "No ­border, no nation, no deportation" was another chant used by some 150 activists who had joined a hard core of about 200 migrants who wanted to remain.

Hundreds of officers formed a cordon around the perimeter, picking up ­anyone who tried to escape.

Punches were thrown at police during the arrests and many migrants, some barely in their teens, were in tears as they were led away. The worst trouble took place near a makeshift mosque, which Afghan residents had vowed to defend.

"It is the centre of our camp, and ­leaving it pains us massively," said Omar, a 26-year-old from Kabul. "The police can try to stop us, but nothing will stop us getting to England."

Detainees will be offered assisted repatriation or the chance to claim asylum. The camp's squalor was one of the reasons for its closure, as well as the crime with which it became associated, including a London journalism student being raped in a tent last summer.

The shanty town had become a ­magnet for migrants determined to reach Britain.